Improvement in processes and apparatus for drying fish-scrap



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

3. CORNELL. PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING FISH SCRAP.

\rm'nt u'ul a, 18:27,

. 2 Sheets-Shee:t 21 L. R. CORNELL.

PROCESS AND Mum-anus FORDRYING FISH scam. 110.192.7401 Patgnted July '3,18:27..

e 0 6 0 6 0 Q i Q O 6 D L Wiiz e V UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEFFERT R. CORNELL, OF SHELTER ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TOHIRAM R. DIXON, OF OASTLETON, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING FISH-SCRAP.

i l Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 192,740, dated July3, 1877 application filed April 20, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, LEFFERT R. CORNELL, ofShelter Island, in the county ofSuftolk and State of New York, haveinvented certain Improvements in Process and Apparatus for DryingFish-Scrap and other Substances, of

.containedtherein; and, also, in aid of said process, and as a part ofthe said invention, to provide an eflicient apparatus for supplying andforcing highly-heated currents of air through and among the fish-scrapand other substances requiring similar treatment in the process ofdrying.

Heretofore fish-scrap has usually been dried by means of pipes heated byordinary steam, which pipes were placed in revolving cylin-. ders inwhich the fish-scrap was placed to be dried.

This mode of drying this material is subject to several objections,among which the large amount of time required for the work and the greatexpense involved in the operation are important, as affecting the costof manufacture. I

Another objection to this previously-practiced mode, as compared withthat which I am about to describe, relates to the product,

my invention being capable of volatilizing and driving off from thefish-scrap and some other substances those fatty matters which it isdesirable and even important should be removed in the process of drying,and which the previous process and apparatus were incapable offurnishing or utilizing a sufficiently high degree of heat to eliminate,but which are volatilized and carried off by the highlyheated currentsof air to which the substance is subjected by my process and apparatus.

One part of the said invention consists in volatilizing and removingfrom the fish-scrap or other material, in the process of drying, the

oleaginous matters, or either of them, contained therein, by subjectingthem to a current or currents of air heated to a degree adapted toaccomplish that purpose, substantially as hereinafter set forth.

Another part of the said invention consists in the combination, with ablower and with a distributing apparatus adapted to discharge the airinto the substance to be dried, of a heatingchamber and series of pipes,through which the air must pass in its passage to the distributingapparatus, substantially as hereinafter more fully set forth.

Another part of the said invention consists in the combination, with ablower, a distributing apparatus adapted to discharge and distribute theheated air into and among the substance to be dried, a heating-chamber,and a series of pipes therein, through which pipes the air must pass onits way to the distribut ing apparatus, of a superheater, substantiallyas hereinafter more fully set forth.

Another part of the said invention consists in the combination, with theapparatus for discharging and distributing the heated air into and amongthe substance to be dried,.of a movable or downwardly-opening platformor floor arranged under said distributing apparatus, whereby the removalof the dried substance is facilitated, substantially as hereinafter morefully set forth.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of myapparatus. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a verticaltransverse section, showing the parts at the right hand ofthe line mm onFig. 4, and representing a section of the platform as swung down toallow the dried material to be discharged. Fig. 4 is a verticallongitudinal section through the center.

A represents the foundation of the apparaa tus, which may be the ground,the stone floor of a building, or any other suitable substructure. B Bare posts which support the distributing-pipes U C and the smalldistributing-pipes cc, through which the heated 'air is received fromother portions of the apparatus, and discharged and distributed into andamong the substance or substances to be dried. For the purpose of sodischarging and distributing the heated air, sinall perforations a aremade in the sides of the pipes c a, through which'the heated air isdischarged.

cause they are injurious in the product, as among other things,endangering spontaneous combustion, and partly because they interferewith and delay the drying process itself.

I suppose "the h'eat thus required and essential to this result cannotbe less than 350 to 500 Fahrenheit, and I prefer to heat the air usedfor :drying these substances to'about 800 or 900 Fahrenheit, as aboutthe most efficient degree of heat for the perfect and readyaccomplishment of the purpose of my invention.

In the mode which I have adopted as the best for giving this heat to theair, and which is to a certain extent a part of this invention, I passthe air to be heated through a series of tubes, b b, inclosed in aheating-chamber, D, through which latter, and among the tubes, a currentof superheated steam is made to pass.

' For this purpose I take steam either from a steam-boiler, (indicatedat E in the drawings,) or from the exhaust of the engine'used about theworks, (the latter being preferred for reasons of economy,) and lead-itthrough a superheater, F, where it receives an intense heat, and fromwhich it is conducted through a pipe, G, (shown principally in dottedlines in Figs. 2 and 4,) 'to the chamber D, through which and among thepipes or tubes b b it freely circulates, imparting a very high degreeofheat to the air passing through the said tubes b b, and the cooled anduncondensed portion may be freely discharged through the open pipe H.

I is a fan-blower, which takes in external air and drives it through thetubes b b, where it is heated, as before stated, and is thence forced,through the tube J and the tubes 0 O and c 0, into and among thesubstance to be dried, as already suggested. As in this process the airmust necessarily be heated to a very high temperature in passing throughthe tubes d d, .in order to render it efficient in expelling the oilfrom the scrap, and as the blower I must be run at a very high speed tosupply the necessary amount of air, it is essential that the blowershall be arranged out of the current of heated air, or, in other words,that the heating-chamber shall be arranged between the blower and thepoints at which speedily render the'blower inefficient.

K is a pipe, through which, by means of the stop-cock d, the water ofcondensation may, as it accumulates, be drawn ofl' into the? tank whichsupplies the boiler, or otherwise discharged. I

L L are hinged platforms, placed -immediately under the pipes c c, tosupport the fishscrap or other substance while in the process of drying,said platforms or floors being so arranged that they can readily beremoved or opened, so as :to allow the drieds'iubstance to beconveniently discharged.

I find these platforms most convenient for use when made in sectionsabout six feet square, and each section hung upon hinges to opendownward when required, as indicated in Fig.3. Each section :mayib'eheld in the closed position, when necessary, by a hook pin or bolt, orother convenient means.

The fish-scrap or other material to be dried having been placed upon the:pipesccand the platforms L L, a strongifire is made in the superheater,so as toheat the steam received into it through the pipe M, orotherwise, to=a very great heat, and this steam,passingthr.ough the pipeGrinto the chamber D, gives a high heat to the tubes 1) b, which, intheir turn, impart the necessary heat to the air which is being driventhrough them by the blower I, which is put in rapid operation for that,purpose.

The degree of heat which'I have mentioned at which the air is dischargedinto the fishscrap volatilizes and carries off with the steam whateverfatty matters may be contained in said scrap, and the drying -process,so relieved,

is accomplished in afraction of the time re quired by the old methods ofdrying by the low heat derived from unsuperheated steam, which wasinsufficient to volatilize-and carry away these oily matters.

These fatty substances being removed, the drying is also more perfectlyaccomplished than could otherwise be done, and the dried article is atonce ready for shipment, instead of requiring, as by the old process, tobe exposed to the air in thin layers forsome days to complete .thedrying and avoid spontaneous combustion. I

When the fish-scrap has been sufficiently dried, the platforms are letvg0 and the dried material discharged, and new and fresh :material beingsupplied, the process maybe repeated indefinitely.

It is possible that some modifications might be made in the process orapparatus I have described without substantially changing the I resultor departing from my inventionas, for example, it may be that the seriesof small tubes b b might be sufficiently heated in areverberatory orother furnace constituting a chamber around them, instead of in achamber heated by the introduction into it of superheated steam; but themodes and apparatus I have described I have tried, found eflicient, anddeem the best.

I claim as my invention- 1. The volatilizing and removing from fishscrapand other substances requiring similar treatment, in the process ofdrying, the fatty matters contained therein, by subjecting them tohighly-heated currents of air, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

2. The combination of the hot-air pipes O O c 0 and movable platforms L,substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

3. The combination of the pipes O G c a, series of dividing and heatingpipes or tubes b b, and heating-chamber I), substantially ashereinbefore set forth.

4. The combination, in a drying apparatus, of the followinginstrumentalities, viz a blower, a series of tubes, 12 b, to divide theair and impart heat to the small streams thereof passing through them, aheating-chamber confore set forth.

LEFFERT R. CORNELL. Witnesses:

THOS. P. How, EDWIN M. DONNELLY.

